It is common practice in vehicles, such as automobiles and trucks, to provide a seat belt 10, such as the one shown in FIG. 1, attached to a B-pillar 12 or other structure of the vehicle, for restraining the occupant of a seat in the seat in the event of a collision or a roll-over of the vehicle.
One widely used form of a seat belt 10 includes an extensible section 14 of the belt 10, attached at an upper end thereof through a first seat belt anchor 16 and at a lower end thereof to a second seat belt anchor 18 to the B-pillar 12 of the vehicle at a point on the B-pillar 102 near the floor of the vehicle. The second anchor 18 typically includes a tension reel mechanism for retracting and storing excess length of the extensible section 14 of the belt 10, and locking the belt 10 in place upon impact of the vehicle with another object.
The extensible section 14 of the belt 10 includes a sliding tang 20 that engages a buckle 22 attached to a non-extensible section 24 of the belt 10, that is attached to the floor of the vehicle by a third seat belt anchor 26. When the tang 20 is latched into the buckle 22, the extensible section 14 of the belt 10 defines a lap belt portion 28 extending from the second anchor 18 to the buckle 22, and a torso belt portion 30 extending over the occupant's shoulder from the first anchor 16 to the buckle 22.
As shown in FIG. 2, to provide for the comfort and safety of occupants of different sizes in a vehicle having a seat belt 10 of the type depicted in FIG. 1, the first seat belt anchor 16 often includes manually operable features that allow it to be moved on the B-pillar 12. By depressing release buttons 32, the anchor 16 is released for limited movement in a track 34 attached to the B-pillar 12, so that the upper anchor 16 can be moved up or down a limited distance to a desired position of the anchor 16 selected by the occupant. After the anchor 16 is moved to the desired position, the release buttons 32 are released, and the anchor 16 locks into the track 34 at the desired position.
Although manually operable, movable anchor mechanisms, of the type described in the preceding paragraph, allow the position of the anchor 16 to be moved, it is often difficult for occupants to reach back over their shoulder to depress the release buttons 32. This is particularly true for occupants of short stature, who have positioned the seat at a forward position away from the B-pillar 12. Occupants wearing heavy clothing, or whose range of motion is restricted also may find it difficult to reach back and operate the movable anchor 14.
In addition, the need for repetitively re-adjusting the position of the anchor 14 each time a different occupant enters the vehicle, or to accommodate devices such as infant seats, is unnecessarily bothersome where the same group of occupants all regularly use the vehicle, but may be alternatively seated in the driver's seat or one of the passenger seats.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved restraint system having a more convenient apparatus and method for adjusting a movable seat belt anchor to a desired position.